GOVERNMENT Commissioners approve pay change to attract court interpreters
BY LIZZY SPANGLER
a whole lot more complicated than that to be a certi ed interpreter for court proceedings.” In Harris County, Vietnamese was the language interpretation most requested by district courts, at 23.3% of the requests, with Spanish follow- ing behind at 21.7%, according to 2022 data provided by Woods from Mas- terWord Services, one of the language service agencies the county uses. Working as a court interpreter Jackie Serrano, who is a licensed court interpreter in Spanish, got her certi cation in 2017. Serrano said in an interview that her dad, an attorney, suggested she become a court interpreter after her kids were a bit older. Serrano said she did a lot of online courses and practice before taking the court interpreter’s test. “There was some sort of inuence between my dad being an attorney, both my best friends being attorneys, my husband’s being an attorney, my brother being an attorney,” Serrano said. “I’ve been surrounded by juries my whole life, so that gave me a little bit of insight into how courtrooms work and a lot of the terminology, so that was a bit of help for me. But it was a lot of hard work, intensive hard work self-teaching myself.” Now a full-time court interpreter, Serrano mainly works in Montgomery County. Earlier in her career as an inter- preter, Serrano said she did a lot of immigration court and served clients that were from di erent countries in Latin America. “You have to have a little bit of knowledge of the culture in each country because in each country, it is di erent,” Serrano said. “Even though the language is the same, some words may not mean the same thing in two di erent countries.” Serrano said court interpreters are an important part of the judicial system. “Without interpreters, courts kind of come to a halt,” Serrano said. “They can’t keep going in cases where they do need to have an interpreter. If there’s no interpreter available, they simply can’t hear the cases. So our role is important.”
courts administrator for the county, said in a Jan. 26 email. The county also has three language service agencies mainly used for nding interpreters familiar in languages other than Spanish. Meanwhile, Harris County’s daily rate for court interpreters is $55 hourly with a max rate per day of $330 while the jury trial rate is $65 hourly with a max rate per day of $390. A need for interpreters Little said Harris County has close to 100 interpreters living in the area, while Montgomery County has 10. “Our 10 can’t necessarily handle our workload and all of the small surrounding counties that also need them,” Little said. Montgomery County does have one full-time court interpreter on sta , Little said. “We also have Montgomery County, and they all could end up needing interpreters on one day.” County Judge Kathleen Hamilton, who presides over the 359th District Court, said the courts balance the cases that need interpreters with those that do not need interpreters. “We have to wait our turn, and so sometimes that means we do other cases rst and just hold onto those, and when we see the interpreter come in, we usually stop whatever we’re doing as soon as we can and take that interpreter’s case rst so they can scoot on their way to help somebody else,” Hamilton said. To qualify to be a court interpreter, people are required to complete a six-hour orientation course, pass a criminal history background check, and pass both a written and oral exam, according to the Texas Judicial Branch Certi cation Commission. “The misconception is that, ‘Oh, it’s just somebody else who speaks Spanish,’” Little said. “It is contract interpret- ers come in when we know that we’re going to have more work than just one interpreter can handle,” Little said. “We have 14 judges on the bench in
STEPS TO BECOME A COURT INTERPRETER There are ve basic steps a candidate must follow to become a licensed court interpreter.
Court interpreters in Montgomery County will now be paid $650 per day for two days when working jury trials after the Montgomery County Commissioners Court approved the pay change during its Dec. 13 meeting. Previously, court interpreters were paid $65 an hour for the rst two days working a jury trial, according to Wendy Little, the county’s director of the o ce of court administration. Following two full days of $650 per day, pay for court interpreters goes back to $65 per hour, Little said. “In order to get [court interpreters] to come to up here, we had to say, ‘Look, if you’re going to come to Montgomery County, we’ll at least guarantee you these rst two days of trial—10 hours a day,” Little said. Paying interpreters Court interpret- ers, licensed in
Complete the six-hour exam orientation course
Submit the license application and exam registration form
Submit the application fee
Pass a criminal history background check
Pass all parts of a commission-approved exam that includes written and oral components
Interested in more information? Visit www.txcourts.gov/jbcc/ licensed-court-interpreters.
WITHOUT INTERPRETERS, COURTS KIND OF COME TO A HALT. JACKIE SERRANO, LICENSED COURT INTERPRETER
SOURCE: TEXAS JUDICIAL BRANCH CERTIFICATION COMMISSION COMMUNITY IMPACT
various languages such as Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic, are used when needed in court proceedings such as civil and criminal trials,
LANGUAGE SPOKEN AT HOME The percent of Montgomery County residents who speak a language other than English at home rose from 2016-21. *FIGURES ARE FOR THE POPULATION FIVE YEARS AND OLDER LANGUAGE BREAKDOWN
depositions and arraignments. If an interpreter cannot be found, a case is unable to proceed. Little said she estimates inter- preters are needed for about two or three arrests daily on average of about 50 arrests. She said the pay change reduces the cost for the county, as pay rates previously reached as high as $100 per hour, because the county was unable to secure interpreters at the negotiated rate. Little said the jury trial pay in Harris County is $65 an hour, and, until the pay change, it did not make economic sense for court interpreters to drive to Montgomery County to receive the same pay they would in Harris County. “After I spoke with [County Judge Mark] Keough, and he approved doing the $650 per day, I had seven or eight interpreters all say, ‘For that, I’ll come north and do your trial,’” Little said. In Harris County, there are 13 full-time Spanish interpreters for its courts, Richard Woods, the district
Speak only English at home
Other than English at home
1.5% Other Indo- European languages
1.4% Asian and Paci c Island languages
16.8% Spanish
0.2% Other languages
20%
80%
2016
2.2% Other Indo- European languages
1.7% Asian and Paci c Island languages
18.6% Spanish
0.5% Other languages
23%
77%
2021
SOURCE: 2016 AND 2021 AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY 5 YEAR ESTIMATES COMMUNITY IMPACT
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THE WOODLANDS EDITION • MARCH 2023
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